Mt Rainier casts a shadow over the Seattle Space Needle (taken from the New Year’s Eve webcam)
One of the most famous icons of Seattle, alongside Starbucks and a Tom Hanks film, is the Space Needle. It was built for the 1962 World’s Fair and was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River. It’s 605ft (184m) high, and only 42m wide at the base in the Seattle Centre.
Elevators carry visitors to the top where 160m high observation decks offer views along the Cascade Mountains. Just below the observation deck is the rotating SkyCity restaurant.
As our hotel was only a 5 minute walk away we decided to spend New Year’s Eve watching the Space Needle fireworks display.
Fireworks at the Seattle Centre – the images on the left are from before the show
Where to watch the Space Needle Fireworks
There are a number of options to watch the fireworks. If you book way in advance you can watch from the SkyCity restaurant, but this is somewhat expensive. Many people watch from inside the Seattle Centre, which seems a little close to me, but I’d like to hear their experiences. Everyone else just lines the streets, at the Space Needle is clearly visible from almost anywhere once you’re out of the downtown sky scrapers.
We joined a reasonable crowd of families, drunken students and friendly policemen on Broad Street, that leads up to the Seattle Centre (zoom into the little map on the sidebar if you want to see exactly where). The families were all wrapped up for the bitingly cold weather, and the female students survived in party dresses and beer coats.
New Year’s Eve Fireworks at the Seattle Centre
They put on a good show, although it didn’t really compare to the reckless abandon of Chinese New Year in Beijing. On the plus side, unlike Beijing they didn’t burn down the surrounding buildings and acres of forests, along with killing a bunch of overenthusiastic revellers!
Space Needle official website: http://www.spaceneedle.com/
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I used to live 6 blocks from the needle, in the neighborhood of Belltown. It was always a blast to stay home for New Years because I had a perfect view of the fireworks. One of the few days in the year where everyone was on the streets and in a great mood. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
That’s a great place to live – lots of interesting restaurants in the neighbourhood!
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